St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-11-19
lie sighed heavily as he sat down.
WHO Is MIGHTIER?
1--WE AIdermans" or a Street Com
missioner-The Eighth Ward
Fight.

mlSSlOncr-Ihe EISntn w arU
Fight.
The conflict of authority between
Aid. Cooley and St0neman, OF the
Eighth ward. and J. w. Baird, the OBJ
durate street commissioner, took up
about an hours time. Aid. Oswald,
MuldOOn and Gleason, composing the
investigating committee, reported that
ho charges were found against Baird,
except not Obeying the orders of the
majority of the aldermen of the ward"
Aid Mills move the report be re-
ferrcd to the city attorney for his opln-
ion. The question involved as to
whether street commissioner must
obey the orders of the aldermen of the
ward is not settled by this report.
The report was then placed on file.
and Aid. Cooley moved that Baird be
discharged. He was declared out of
order, but SubSeG uently renewed his
motion under the head of motions"
President Mareck then again decided
him out of order for the reason
that the council had not the power to
discharge a man whose term of office
had not expired, without cause. Aid.
Cooley quoted from the charter to show
that it was elective and not appOintive
officers that. the council could not dis
charge peren.ptOrily. He appealed
from the decision of the chair, was sus-
tanned by a vote of 10 to u, and again
renewed his motion. backing it up with
very vigorous speech in which he said
that for twenty years past 1t had been
left TO the aldermen, not street COM
miSSiOnerS, as to how and in what
amounts funds should be expended.
For two months Aid. StOneman and
himself had refused to sign pay-rOllS
and should continue to do SO.
City Attorney Smith was called upon
for his opinion, and gave it at some
length. in very decided language. In
fact. he intimated that the language of
the charter was so plain that any man
with the intelligence of a government
mule should understand it.
You can vote to discharge the street
commissioner a hundred times" he
said. but you can't discharge him."
lie then went on to define explicitly the
powers of both aldermen and street
commissioner, which summed up
amounted TO this, that the work should
be performed by the street commits
siOner under either the discretion of the
citXEouncil or the aldermen and the
city engineer.
When the vote was taken many OF the
aldermen hesitated about voting on a
matter concerning the interests of a
ward. Aid. Z. NJ. johnson considered
the city attorney technically correct, but
practically speaking, thought the alder
men would always vote to leave the
control of ward matters in the hands of
aldermen from their respective wards.
Aids. Mills, Nichols and HanscOm gave
Mr.. Baird a personal ind OrsemeDt as a
man of integrity in explaining their
votes. The advice of the city attorney
that Baird could not be discharged eXer-
cised considerable influence, and Aid.
COoley's motion was lost by vote of q
to q. several aldermen refusing TO vote
at all. Aid. Cooley came ND smiling for
the second round, remarking that he
meant to submit to the inevitable grace
fully. and then offered a-reSOlutiOn that
no street commissioner should be al
lowed To eXpend funds without the con-
sent of the majority of the aldermen of
the ward. This was carried unani-
mously.